What’s Gone Wrong for Mariners During Recent Slide?

Coming into the season, the Seattle Mariners were expected to be competing with the Houston Astros atop the AL West for a majority of the year.

PECOTA had Seattle projected for 86 wins and gave it a 59.4% chance to make the postseason, the sixth-highest of any team in the American League.

Just 12 days ago, the Mariners were 32-26, and in first place in their division. Fast forward to Friday, and Seattle sat at 33-34 and was under .500 for the first time since mid-April.

The first issue for the Mariners has been the losses to bad teams. The last three teams Seattle played (Orioles, Angels, Diamondbacks) entering Friday are a combined nine games under .500 and are all trending toward being sellers at this year’s trade deadline.

Seattle has struggled to score during the 1-8 stretch, averaging just 3.5 runs per game. Compare that to the 6.2 runs per game that Mariners pitching has allowed, and that is a recipe for disaster.

The upcoming schedule for the Mariners doesn’t appear that it will allow for the slightest margin of error. The next three series for Seattle come against the Guardians, Red Sox and Cubs. The next “easy” series will not be until the first week in July, when they travel to Pittsburgh for a three-game series.

Now, the season is just 67 games old so there is no need for Mariner’s fan to completely lose hope.

Just last season, the team went 16-6 in September and missed the postseason by just one game. Two seasons ago, Seattle got above .500 in mid-July and never fell back below that mark and finished the season at 88-74.

There is still plenty of baseball to be played and for the Mariners to put themselves in position to make the postseason for just the second time since 2001.

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